Ian Mallon: Fifa to award €1.2m to WNT, but what is team worth?
INCOMING FUNDS: Ireland’s Amber Barrett celebrates scoring the first goal of the game last night, with Katie McCabe. ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
THE Irish Women’s National Team will immediately pocket more than €1m in prize money for the FAI by qualifying for next year’s World Cup finals.
The Pitch understands that while no fee has yet been agreed or announced by FIFA, current figures being discussed in Zurich stand at just over €1m for each of the eventual 32 qualifiers.
Progression through the tournament, into Round 2 and beyond, will see more money awarded, but the real value for the Women’s team should come in commercial activity where the FAI can expect to earn an extra €1m.
That is assuming, of course, that the damage of the ‘Up the RA’ team singalong hasn’t had too many big brands scrambling for cover – and don’t underestimate that, any squalls of controversy will have had a knee-buckling effect with corporates.
One brand who has benefitted immensely from an early endorsement of this team is Sky, which is barely one year into a four-year deal as Primary Partner of the Women’s National Team.
The Sky contract represents extraordinary value for the organisation’s Irish operation, particularly as the broadcaster paid a fee in the low six figures for the partnership, which runs until after the 2025 Euros.
There will be bonus clauses activated for qualification to the World Cup, and for further progress through the tournament, which may double the fees paid by the broadcaster.
The headline sponsorship represents what is a unique arrangement in international football, where you have a large commercial entity which wanted to sponsor a senior international team, but had no interest in seeing its branding on the men’s squad.
Such an arrangement now presents a complexity for the FAI in its ongoing pursuit of an Association and Men’s Team headline sponsor.
Under normal qualification circumstances, commercial directors would be tearing down the doors at Abbotstown to sign up as overall partner, but with no headline access to the Women’s team, that suddenly becomes less attractive.
For now, none of this represents a huge problem for the FAI, which will be experiencing a wave of expressions of interest around the Women’s Team.
The loyal existing brands will also be checking their contracts to see what further activations they can access on the back of World Cup qualification – they include Aviva, Carlsberg, Nissan, Intersport Elverys, Tipperary Water and Cadbury.
A number of vacant partnerships will be explored in the coming days with airlines, hotel groups and fashion brands all set to be contacted by hungry commercial managers in Abbotstown.
For the players themselves, there will be the opportunity to activate their own sponsorships, where some of the higher profile stars can expect to earn up to €100k in personal endorsements.
On a scale of comparison, England Lionesses star Lucy Bronze has endorsement deals with Pepsi and Visa worth more than £1m, while captain Leah Williamson recently agreed a contract with Italian fashion house Gucci, along with her ongoing arrangements with Pepsi and Nike.
The queen of endorsements in European women’s football is Norway sensation Ada Hegerberg who has an arrangement with Nike worth more than €1m.
While the FAI adjusts its commercial forecasts for 2023 it will do so with an eye on the tremendous expense that playing in a tournament brings – particularly one on the other side of the world.
In the absence of an international carrier partner – the cost of a pre-tournament training camp – along with high-quality hotel facilities Down Under, will come at an extraordinary cost.
Travel and accommodation for chefs, ground staff (for the training pitch), physios, doctors, media officers, security and operational staff, not to mention Board Members and commercial partners, will be immense.
Don’t expect the FAI to indulge in the largesse which kept the Association in luxury during France 2016, when it booked a huge chunk of the Trianon Palace Versailles, where rooms start at €300 per night.
The bill for that particular indulgence has never been revealed, but will have been close to a seven-figure sum.
Whatever is worked out in the commercial and financial offices of the FAI in the weeks ahead, the Association is in for exciting times as it balances commercial income with the expenditure of financing a squad at a World Cup on the other side of the world.
THE Department of Sport has confirmed that a Junior Minister and designated officials were lobbied for funding and changes in betting tax legislation by the Football Association of Ireland.
The FAI has never declared the meeting and has refused to reveal details of the gathering which took place in February 2021.
It has also ceased declaring all such meetings with politicians and public representatives for more than two years – despite a legal obligation to reveal all of its lobbying activities.
The Standards in Public Office Commission has pointed out that compliance contraventions for lobbying of politicians, public representatives or designated public officials (DPOs) is punishable through fines and/or imprisonment under the Lobbying Regulation Act 2015.
The Department of Sport confirmed to The Pitch that the FAI had raised the issue of betting duty and changes in how that money is distributed at the meeting last year with Minister for Sport Jack Chambers.
In a statement, it said: “Minister Chambers, along with his advisers and officials, met with representatives of the FAI in February 2021 to discuss a range of issues including EURO 2020, governance, and the impact of the pandemic on football and the return to play.
“The issue of the allocation of funds raised via the betting tax was also raised by the FAI, with particular reference to the level of betting which takes place on football.”
Confirmation of the meeting and clarification that matters raised around funding and policy were brought up by the FAI, and not the Department, is a significant detail.
The FAI appears to be protecting itself from declaring interests if it believes it has been invited by a Minister or DPO to make a submission.
Up to this week’s confirmation that the meeting took place, the only record of it was in a report in the , in which journalist Aaron Rogan was told by the FAI that details were “confidential”.
The Standards in Public Office (SIPO) commission, the independent office which oversees lobbying activities, declarations and penalties told The Pitch that the FAI is bound by law to disclose all of its lobbying activities, and is ‘not exempt or excepted’.
The FAI disagreed and said that it had filed ‘Nil Returns’ to the lobbying register, lobbying.ie for more than two years “in line with its obligations”.
SIPO has outlined ‘relevant contraventions’ of the legislation, under Section 18 of the Act along with Section 20, the various punishments it can administer for failure to comply.
THE strength of Irish racing has taken another strategic leap with the announcement by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) of significant changes to the calendar for 2023.
Three high-quality meetings for Punchestown, Navan and Fairyhouse will mark a triple crown of racing jewels for the pre-Christmas National Hunt roster over the final two weekends of November and first weekend of December.
The highlights will see the Lismullen, Fortria Chase and John Durkan Memorial run over the consecutive weekend schedule.
HRI said the fixture list was compiled with a view to “maximising the Irish schedule from a coverage and commercial perspective, while maintaining a number of initiatives to ease pressure on stable staff and trainers throughout the year”.
Despite the changes, the number of fixtures next year has been retained at 390 with the ‘major racing festivals’ kicking off at Leopardstown on February 4 and 5, followed by the Cork Easter Festival from April 8-10.
